The Power of Preschooler Partnerships in Peer Intervention

Preschoolers can make the best research partners, so we’re hoping we can help the PIPA project find a few more Kansas City area school districts willing to bring this KU autism intervention to area preschool classrooms. We recently caught up with researcher Dr. Kathy Bourque to talk about the project.

“In these kinds of peer-mediated interventions, peers—typically developing preschool children, in this case—are guided by adults to prompt communication and social behaviors during structured play activities with autistic peers,” Dr. Bourque said.

Through PIPA, or the Peer Intervention for Preschoolers with Autism, a school special education team member works with the trio of children to use a communication intervention called Stay-Play-Talk, which has been shown to increase communication and social skills among autistic children.

The Kansas Department of Education recently highlighted the federally funded project in area schools such as USD 469 in Lansing, Kansas. Dr. Bourque, together with researcher Janet Weaver at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in Kansas City, Kan., are looking for more schools to partner with. By October, they are seeking 12 children in area schools to enroll in the study.

“We can’t approach an individual special education classroom or teacher, though,” Bourque told us. “We need to have the involvement of district administrators first, so the race is on to find more partners.” Interested districts are encouraged to reach out to Weaver at janet.weaver@ku.edu to inquire about getting the project into their district.

Both children who have been clinically identified as autistic, as well as those who haven’t yet received a clinical evaluation for autism, are eligible to participate. Over the course of the multi-site study, 120 preschoolers with autism will be recruited to participate in local preschools in the Kansas City metro area and preschools across North Carolina.

Bourque recently presented results of a 2-year study at the International Society of Autism Research (INSAR) conference in Stockholm, Sweden. In five school districts, the research team provided a similar Stay-Play-Talk peer-mediated intervention to 24 preschoolers with autism with limited or no spoken language, along with 47 peer buddies. Outcomes showed marked changes in spontaneous communication and reciprocity, behaviors that are critical for early social development.